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Friday, February 3, 2017

The emotional roller-coaster ride of Eurydice.

Audie Gemora as Ama and Lhorvie Nuevo as Eurydice. (Photos by Jojo Mamangun)

Para sa pag-ibig, ano’ng kaya mong gawin?

What can you do for love? The question really is, what won’t you do for love?

Get ready to witness a different kind of love triangle between Eurydice, Orfeo and Eurydice’s father. We explore love, loss and the pleasures of pain and memory in this myth’s contemporary retelling that shows the young and very much in love Orpheus and Eurydice.

Eurydice meets a man in her wedding, claiming that he has letters for her from her dead father. As she struggles to take hold of the letter from the man, she dies in the process and arrives in the Underworld to her father. As Orfeo tries to pursue her and descend to the Underworld, she must choose between ‘the love for her husband which she has already forgotten’ and her ‘father’s unconditional love.‘

Director Loy Arcenas touches on the underlying problem with falling in love – that one is always ahead of the other, and a familial devotion between a father and daughter. He asks, “Why is Eurydice so much more in love with her father?” Maybe it’s the father’s paternal tenderness pulling her in. He continues, “Maybe Eurydice wants someone to cocoon her and show her unselfish love [that transcends youth, beauty and infatuation]. Orfeo does not get this until the after life.”

“How can one possibly fall in love with another person? For us to fall in love, we have to find a way to give ourselves. How much of one’s self can you give to falling in love?” Director Loy Arcenas throws us hard hitting questions that take us into an emotional rollercoaster dealing with love, love lost and grief. We are also presented with the complexity of being in a relationship and the differences two people in love have to deal with, such as having different expressions or languages of love.

This depiction of Eurydice is arbitrary and unorthodox, and mirrors the realities of the human condition. Despite the sadness of the myth, a sense of wonder and hope envelopes deeper themes of death, love and loss.

Tanghalang Pilipino’s Eurydice is not your typical love story. It is indeed a story about love – embracing not just romantic love but also the bond between a father and a daughter, family relationships, the complexity of marriage, and dealing with life & the afterlife.

Theme and SettingBe enthralled with a lot of imagery – water currents as an elevator in which it rains to get to the Underworld, rocks that taunt and whisper, flowers that adorn the wedding setting, and most of all, a thrust stage – one that extends into the audience on three sides and is connected to the backstage area – to provide greater intimacy between performers and the audience.

The cast features Tanghalang Pilipino Actors Company’s Lhorvie Nuevo for the title role and Marco Viaña as Orfeo, with guest actors Audie Gemora and Juliene Mendoza alternating as the Father, and Alfritz Blanche as the Big Stone.

Tanghalang Pilipino is on its milestone 30th theater season, and as we close this season, we are proud to offer, EURYDICE, a Filipino adaptation by Guelan Luarca of Sarah Ruhl’s play of the same title, based on the Greek myth of the love between Orpheus and Euridice.

Eurydice will run at the CCP Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (CCP Little Theater) from February 17, 2017 until March 5, 2017, at the following times, Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 3PM and 8PM, and Sundays at 3PM.

Tickets are at 1,500 and 1,000. Tickets for students are at a discounted price of 750 and 500. Subscriptions and group discounts are also available through Tanghalang Pilipino at 832.1125 locals 1620-21, 822.2920 (direct line) or through Ms. Lorelei Celestino at 0915.607.2275 or 0908.894.1384